


An Engaging Party

by SunsetNCamden



Series: An Engaging Series [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien in a band with Juleka Luka Rose & Alix, Adrien songwrites with Juleka, Asperger Syndrome, Brief flashback of suicide attempt, Engagment Party, F/M, Social Anxiety
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-05
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-05-02 16:25:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14548713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunsetNCamden/pseuds/SunsetNCamden
Summary: It's Marinette and Luka's engagement party and Nathaniel is attending despite his social anxiety and awkwardness. He just returned from a two-month trip to New York and this will be the first time he will see his ex-girlfriend, Chloe Bourgeois. Over the course of the party Nathaniel discovers what has happened during his absence and gets pulled in to the complicated dynamic of multiple love triangles.





	An Engaging Party

**Author's Note:**

> I got a lot of requests to continue An Engaging Conversation and so I wrote this showing what was happening at the same time Chloe and Adrien were talking at the sound studio. I chose to write it from Nathaniel's perspective as his phone call at the end of An Engaging Conversation is pretty key. I read a twitter exchange a while back between Thomas Astruc and a fan asking if he'd ever include a character with Asperger's Syndrome and he replied that if you look closely then you'd know that there already is one. So, I don't know who it is, but I thought it'd be great if it was Nathaniel because they have done so little with him in the show and that would give him a really distinctive personality. This is my first stab at writing not only this character, but also this take on the character, which is probably different from other fanfics with Nathaniel that you've read before.  
> If you read An Engaging Conversation, then this probably isn't the continuation of the story that you wanted, but it's the one I was inspired to write and I hope you still enjoy it. Thanks!

“You have arrived,” a robotic, female voice announced. Nathaniel looked down at his phone. He checked the address on the screen and then looked at the street number on the building. Match. He checked the time on the screen: 22:07. More than an hour late. Fine. Late enough for everyone to have arrived already except for one person who notoriously runs on her own time. That left him two options.

Option 1: Make himself comfortable, or as comfortable as he could be in a strange place surrounded by a lot of people, and wait for her. In public she’d be less likely to make a scene and maybe, just maybe she’d actually listen to what he needed to tell her.

Option 2: Go in, tell the happy couple good luck, give them the gift, and get the hell out of there _before_ she arrives.

Actually, Option 3 just leapt to mind: text Marinette you’re sick, turn around, and run all the way home.

Option 3 it is. He turned to walk back the way he came. No, no. You’ll never get her back that way. Option 1. Option 1! He turned around this time to head inside. He walked up the first two steps of the porch and then stopped. Option 3. He turned around again and went back down the steps. He stopped again. _Fuck!_ Why was this so hard? Marinette is your friend and you don’t have that many, so be a man and go with Option 2. He turned around and faced the stairs. Although there were only 4 steps up to the front door of the building it may as well have 4,000,000. He hated crowds. He hated parties.

A loud whistle from above pierced Nathaniel’s churning thoughts. He looked up to see several figures on a balcony intently watching him.

“Nath! You coming up or what?” a voice called out from the largest figure.

“Dammit, Ivan! Alix and I had a bet going!” the tall, thin figure complained.

“Get your scrawny ass in here, Nath!” the shortest figure enthused.

Nathaniel gave a little wave. He was caught. No escape now. He climbed the 4 steps and opened the building’s door. Option 1 or Option 2? Option 1 of Option 2?

He he had only made it up two flights when he began to hear whoops of laughter above him followed by hurried footfalls that approached at a faster and faster pace.

“I’m gonna win!”

“Un-uh! Your legs are too short!”

As the crashing and crowing threatened to knock him down, Nathaniel instinctively stopped and braced his body up against the wall, trying to flatten it, to be as small as possible, which was not too hard given his short stature.

“Nath!” Kim jumped the last landing between himself and Nath. “Ha! I win!” he called over his shoulder.

“Nath!” Alix cried as she brushed passed Kim to give her friend a rough hug. “How the hell are you? How was your trip?”

“Good.” His arms flailed a bit at the small girl’s tight embrace. When she released him he saw both of their smiling faces and he tried to imitate their greeting on his own face, although his eyes flicked uncomfortably to the floor.

“You need a drink,” Kim declared, taking him by the elbow and leading him up the stairs. Alix pushed him from behind. Nathaniel could only nod in agreement, trying to hurry with the hope that their physical contact would cease once they reached their destination.

He soon found himself in a small, stuffy apartment decorated with an obscene amount of pink. Everything about Marinette was pink. Whenever he used a particular shade called “pink lace”, perhaps best characterized as a pale rose, he always thought of her.   

He scanned the room, seeing many familiar faces in the room, but one in particular he did _not_ see.

“Look who we found!” Alix sing-songed as she dragged him further into the room. Open air, side to the face kisses were exchanged awkwardly with a number of the guests. Nathaniel tended to panic, uncertain if he should go left or right.

“Is Chloe coming?” he asked, nervous to hear the answer.

“She better not!” Alya replied crisply. “That traitor!”

Nathaniel frowned, “Why’s Chloe a traitor?” If they should be mad at anyone, then they should be mad at him. He broke up with _her_.

Alya gasped, a trickle of her drink running down her chin, “You don’t know!”

“Just let the man relax,” Nino chided his wife. He put a friendly, if unsolicited arm around Nathaniel’s shoulder. “He just got back. Besides, you don’t want to talk about your ex now do you?” Nino shook his head no and Nathaniel for lack of knowing what to do, mimicked him.

Kim forced a beer into his hand. The redhead doesn’t like beer. The smell put him off as much as the taste, but Nathaniel held the bottle just to be sociable. At least his free hand was occupied with something to do.

He heard his name being called and looked over to find the bride-to-be, smiling sweetly. He tried to return the expression, but felt his face stiffen with anxiety as she planted a kiss on each of his cheeks. He shoved the gift bag he brought practically in her face. Marinette lowered it so that she could peek inside and thanked him with a squeeze to his shoulder.

“How was your trip to New York?” she asked kindly. “Did you take the art scene by storm?”

He frowned, not sure of what she’s asking. “There were no storms during my visit. Just sunny days, clear nights. Not too hot, but warmer than here....” His face burned at having to talk so much.

Marinette chuckled good naturedly. He exhaled, trying to dispel his nervousness. The conversation turns to talk of her own work, specifically if she’ll be designing her own wedding dress. Nathaniel’s head turned silently back and forth, back and forth as if a spectator at a tennis match as he followed the conversation from one speaker to the next.

He suddenly interjected, “Where’s Adrien? Is he coming?” Nathaniel likes Adrien. They weren’t particularly close in school, but he’d gotten to know him a lot better since he started dating Chloe. Adrien is patient. Adrien listens. Adrien didn’t touch him. Adrien understands Chloe.

“He promised to come,” Alix piped up, “But we left him in the studio, so you know how he is…”

“The man gets lost in his work,” Nino shook his head mournfully. “I’ll text him to get his butt over here,” he pulled out his phone from his pocket.

“Must be writing another song for you,” Nathaniel said to Marinette.

“Wh-what?” Marinette choked out. At that moment Luka chose to come over to greet Nathaniel, but he barely nodded in acknowledgement. He was in the middle of a thought that needed to be expressed.

“Yes, Chloe says all of Adrien’s songs are about you,” the artist clarified.

“Well, you can’t believe everything Chloe says…” Luka asserted.

“You’re exaggerating, right?” the raven-haired girl asked. Her voice sounded raspy. Maybe she’s getting sick?

“No, on the last album Adrien was the lead writer on 5 of the 7 Agreste/Coffaine songs. All of them were about you, Marinette,” he insisted. “ _Crazy for You_ , _Remember Me, Don’t Walk Away_ …”

“You don’t have to list them all,” Luke warned, trying to lead Nathaniel away.

“... _I Miss You,_ and _Come Back_ ,” he called over his shoulder, completing the list.

“Jules, Rose, look who’s here: Nathaniel!” He turned to the short man, “Why don’t you sit here, okay?”

Nathaniel nodded and sat. He looked around him, a wall on each side of him. Nathaniel settled back into the cushion of the chair and exhaled. He liked corners, he felt less exposed. He wished that there could be more corners in a room. He took out his small notepad from his jacket pocket and a pencil. Juggling the bear bottle in one hand and propping the notepad up on his lap by leaning it against his crossed leg, he sketched a mock-up of a room with lots of corners. His brow furrowed and his tongue poked out slightly between his lips as his pencil scratched lines at just the right angle. Satisfied with his drawing he looked up, re-entering the world of people. He nodded to the two girls and Rose smiled back. Juleka’s eyes looked watery and her cheeks were flushed. He stuffed his notepad and pencil back in his pocket, before asking the question he _had_ to know the answer to.

“Are you sick?” he asked Juleka. “You look sick.” Was everyone here sick? He felt the need to wash his hands.

Juleka mumbled something and her face crumpled. Tears spilled down her cheeks. Nathaniel looked helplessly at Rose.

“She’s crying,” he pointed at the dark-haired girl.

Rose whispered, “Adrien quit the band.”

“Why did Adrien quit the band, Juleka?” Nathaniel asked very loudly for what should have been a very quiet question.

“Say what?” Nino’s eyebrows jumped in surprise. Everyone started talking at once. They all crowded into his corner. He pulled his elbows against his body to make himself smaller to take up less room. Nathaniel didn’t know who to look at. There were so many questions, but mostly everyone wanted to know why. That’s what Nathaniel wanted to know, too.

“Juleka? Adrien quit the band?” Marinette broke through the din, to find Adrien’s songwriting partner in tears. “Did you have a fight? What happened?”

Having had one more shot than her thin frame could withstand, Juleka was not in a state to answer any questions. She just sat there crying as her girlfriend rubbed soothing circles on her back. Marinette looked to Rose and then Alix. Both turned their eyes away.

“Luka? Did you know about this?”

“Now, don’t let it spoil the party,” Luka soothed his fiance.

“You knew! Why didn’t you tell me? I have to call him,” Marinette strode across the room and picked up her phone from the table.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” Nathaniel announced, standing straight up.

Marinette distractedly told him it was the second door on the right. Not knowing what to do with the beer bottle he handed it to Alix, who although surprised took it without question. She gave him a smile and a nod before placing the bottle to her lips. He hurried passed Marinette following her directions as she placed the phone to her ear.

One door, two doors. He walked in without looking, turned around, and shut the door. Deep breaths as his head fell against the door. Okay. Another 5 minutes and then you go. He turned around, taking in the room. He blinked. This was not the bathroom. This was a very pink bedroom with frilly lace and large cherry blossom printed fabrics. For an artist Nathaniel wondered why Marinette chose to decorate her apartment in such a monochromatic scheme. He longed for a slash of orange, a streak of cerulean! This wall in puce! He stepped closer. On the wall in question was a school picture from back in the day. He looked for her face, but no. No Chloe. Hmm...perhaps she was absent that day? He couldn’t remember. In those days he had a crush on Marinette and avoided Chloe at all costs. So many things had changed since then. Now he longed to see Chloe, even if just in a picture.

Voices. Loud voices and footsteps, click, bang as the door hit the wall. Nathaniel backed up. He shouldn’t be in here. Another step back as he sank into blouses and skirts hanging in a closet.

“Marinette!” Luka called as he followed her into the bedroom, slamming the door behind them as if it would give them any privacy from their guests in the next room.

“Adrien’s not answering. I have to check on him.”

“You are _not_ going over there!”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” she asserted as she sat on her bed to pull her boots onto her feet.

“You are not leaving your _own engagement party_ to go see your _ex_ -boyfriend!” Luka gesticulated into the air.

“Something’s wrong. Adrien wouldn’t just quit,” She stood up and reached over to pull a jacket from the back of a chair.

“Marinette, he’s a grown man. He can take care of himself!” he argued.

She slung her purse over her head and one shoulder without answering him.

“He doesn’t need you to save him all the time!”

“You don’t know that. I found him when he...what if…” Thoughts of Adrien’s suicide attempt swirled in her head as her stomach clinched. She and Chloe had found him unconscious, splayed out on the bathroom floor when he didn’t turn up for band practice and no one could get a hold of him. An empty bottle of sleeping pills lay next to him. He was cold to the touch and completely unresponsive. His shallow breaths the only indicator that life had not completely left him. “I have to go see him. I have to see Adrien.” She grabbed her keys from the dish on the bureau.

Luka stood in front of the door, not moving, blocking her path. Her bluebell eyes flashed in determination, “Get out of my way, Luka. I’m going!”

“You’re not responsible for him. It’s not your fault that bad things happen to him.”

“I know that.”

“Then why do you blame yourself?”

“I don’t!”

“Yes, you do! And then you make it your mission to fix it for him.”

“I just need to do this. Okay?” She was wasting precious time, time that Adrien might not have. She brushed past him, reaching for the door handle. “I’m sorry. I’ll be back later.”

“I won’t be here when you get back,” he said quietly, but steadily. He meant it.

She stilled her hand on the doorknob, “Don’t make me choose between him and you.”

“I shouldn’t have to...You always put me second.”

Marinette rounded on him in anger. “What number was _I_ when you slept with Chloe?”

In surprise Nathaniel backed up a step, but there was not a place for his foot as it hit something hard and he tumbled over with a crash and a yelp. His arms grabbed at the fabric swinging around him pulling Marinette’s blouses and skirts off of their hangers.

“What the _fuck_?” Luka cried out.

“I was looking for the bathroom,” Nathaniel explained, not meeting the rocker’s eyes as he struggled to his feet.

“Get out.”

“Sorry Nath,” Marinette said quietly.

Nathaniel gave a tentative nod, mumbling an apology, as he opened the door, relieved to escape the fight only to be met with about a half a dozen pairs of eavesdropping ears. He only managed to just close the door behind him as the couple’s friends had closely crowded into the hallway. Alya stood uncomfortably near him as her reddish-brown hair fell down in waves, brushing his shoulder. Tons of questions filled his head and spilled out of his mouth.

“Did Chloe sleep with Luka?” he asked her.

“Yes, shhhh.”

He could still hear them through the door.

“I thought we were past Chloe?” Luka’s muffled voice sounded.

 _“When_ did Chloe sleep with Luka?” Nathaniel continued questioning the long-haired girl.

“After you left for New York,” Alya replied with a frown.

“Is Chloe _still_ sleeping with Luka?” he asked her.

“What? No!” came Alya’s short reply. She re-adjusted her head so that she could hear through the door better.

“Did Chloe _like_ sleeping with Luka?”

Alya made a face like she had eaten something rotten. From behind him he could hear Nino let out a breathy “dude” and Alix snickered.

For a second the door opened a crack and everyone stepped back before it was promptly slammed shut again. Everyone leaned back in to hear.

“Marinette, I’m asking you to start a life with me,” Luka pleaded from behind the door. “I’m your future. Adrien’s your past. Forget about him.”

“I can’t. I don’t want to,” came the higher pitched reply. “I’m sorry Luka.”

“You’re making a mistake. He’s made it perfectly clear he doesn’t want you. He’s not asking for your help or your love!”

“His songs say otherwise,” came her clipped reply.

“You’re still chasing him after all of these years. It’s pathetic! _You’re_ pathetic!”

“Luka, Fuck Off!”

Suddenly the door opened, and Marinette pushed through the crowd down the hall. Nathaniel stepped aside as best he could to let her past. His eyes fell on Luka who was holding something small and shiny in his hand. His mouth formed a perfect “o” before his brow furrowed and his face darkened. He slammed the door in their faces.

“Marinette, where are you going?” Alya called after her.

“To see Adrien. I’m so sorry to do this, guys, but I have to make sure he’s okay.”

“What about Luka?” Mylene asked. Marinette simply shook her head and left.

“Holy hell!” Nino breathed.

“What just happened?” Rose asked from the corner, still soothing Juleka.

“She gave Luka the ring back,” Mylene said as she sat down on the couch with a thud.

Kim shook his head “What a brawl!”

“I can’t believe they broke up again,” Ivan moaned as he sat next to Mylene, taking her hand in his.

“They always do that,” Alix rolled her eyes.

“Nah, this is it though,” Alya shook her head slowly. “They’re not getting back together.”

“Not much left of the party…” Mylene spoke softly. “Should we just clean up?”

“I’m going,” Nathaniel declared suddenly. “No Marinette. No Chole. No Adrien,” he mumbled mostly to himself,

“Oh this is bad. Bad, bad, bad!” Nino grabbed his head with one hand and Nathaniel’s jacket collar with the other.

“Why?” he squeaked, not understanding why the DJ had a hold on him.

“ _Chloe’s_ with Adrien, and Marinette’s on her way over there!” Nino’s other hand grabbed Nathaniel’s other side of his jacket and shook him to stress his words.

“Fuck! Call Chloe and tell her to leave!” Alya shrieked, her arms flailing.

“I can’t!” Nino gratefully released Nathaniel to turn to argue with his wife. “You made me delete her number!” Nathaniel smoothed the fabric of his jacket with his hands over and over again.

“Who else has her number? Juleka?”

Juleka lifted her head off of Rose’s shoulder and opened her mouth as if to speak, but only sobs came  out.

“I have Chloe’s number,” Nathaniel held up his phone for the whole room to see. All at once they were on top of him, ordering him to call Chloe and hurry, hurry!

“Tell her she has to leave cuz Marinette’s on her way to see Adrien,” Nino instructed.

“Why does she have to leave?” he asked as opened his phone.

“Tell her to hurry,” Alya insisted as she hovered over him.

“And tell her Marinette broke up with Luka.”

“How long does it take to get to the studio from here?” Alya asked the room.

“I dunno,” Alix shrugged, “Maybe 10 minutes if she took a cab?”

At the same time the Nathaniel pressed his phone to speed dial Chloe’s number the door to the bedroom flung open. Luka strode out with one hand raised.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” The spurned ex-fiance opened the apartment door and left without another word. Everyone watched him go. No one followed.

“H-hello?” Nathaniel was snapped back to the phone call he had initiated.

“Chloe? It’s Nathaniel.”

“Yes?”

“Where are you?”

“What do you care?”

“Just answer the question,” Nathaniel stressed as Alya tilted the phone in his hand so she could hear, too. Her hair was on his shoulder again.

“I’m at the recording studio with Adrien.”

“You have to leave now!” he hurriedly stressed as he pulled away to create distance between himself and Marinette’s pushy best friend.

“What? Why? You have no right to…”

“Chloe! I don’t have time to explain,” his brain searched for words to convince her and pulled from those he had just heard. “I’m at Marinette and Luka’s engagement party or what’s left of it.”

“Whatdaya mean?”

“I mean they broke up.”

“Again?” Chloe sounded shrill in his ear.

“This is it though. It was a real brawl,” he said as Kim nodded in agreement. “They aren’t getting back together.” His eyes flicked to Alya, who again pressed too close.

“Yeah, right,” Chloe wasn’t listening to him.

He pushed through the faces, shoulders, arms surrounding him to a clear spot by Mylene, “She gave him back the ring.”

“Seriously?” Came Chloe’s reply. Nathaniel noticed that the group he had tried to escape had followed him, and so he missed Chloe’s next question, “What’s it got to do with me?”

“Tell her about Marinette!” Nino hissed as he shook him again.

“Marinette’s on her way over there...to see _Adrien_.”

“Ah! How long?”

“Maybe 10 minutes,” he shrugged, but he noted Alix’s shaking head.

“Less now,” the short girl corrected.

“Right, gotta go!” she cried and he was about to hang up when he heard her continue. “Wait. Do you know…?”

“Yes, I got the whole story from Alya.” Although he hadn’t had time to process it. All those questions rushed in and he was thinking of new ones now as they spoke, but first he had to tell her that he was wrong and she had less time.

“Dammit, Alya!” she cursed under her breath. “Okay, first of all, we were broken up…”

“9 minutes.” Now he felt a little bit better.

“Shit! Okay, okay.” But her voice was fading with each word as if the phone had been pulled away from her face.

“Wait! Chloe!”

“Yeah?”

Nathaniel remembered Option 1. “Can we...can we talk?”

“Yeah, text me.”

The phone beeped indicating an end to the call. Nathaniel looked up, feeling uncomfortable that everyone was looking at him.

“Chloe’s leaving,” he murmured. Sighs and nervous laughter echoed throughout the room. Someone patted him on the back. “I’m leaving, too.”

He heard thanks being offered to him as well as farewells, but he just gave a quick wave. Alone in the quiet of the hallway he sighed as he leaned on the rail. He hated parties. He hated crowds. He hurried down the stairs in case anyone followed him.

When he was safely about a block away he opened his phone and sent a text.

 **N:** Meet now?

 **C:** Headed to the hotel. C u there

Nathaniel opened the map app on his phone and inputted the address for Le Grand Paris. As he followed the directions he revised his plan. Option 4: go to her hotel suite, wait while she causes a scene, tell her what you need her to know.

**Author's Note:**

> There are a lot of symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome, but rarely does one person have all of symptoms and they can vary in terms of the degree. These are the ones I chose for Nathaniel:  
> • limited or inappropriate social interactions  
> • challenges with nonverbal communication (gestures, facial expression, etc.) coupled with average to above average verbal skills  
> • inability to understand social/emotional issues or nonliteral phrases  
> • lack of eye contact   
> • obsession with specific, often unusual, topics  
> • one-sided conversations  
> I interpreted these symptoms as Nathaniel has difficulty reading people's emotions when expressed through facial expressions, so he thinks Marinette and Juleka are sick, when they are actually embarrassed/surprised and sad, respectively.  
> The "take the art world by storm" is a nonliteral phrase that he doesn't understand and interprets it literally thinking Marinette is asking him about the weather.  
> Obsession with specific topics I used as when he thinks of a question he has to ask it, i.e. questions about Chloe and Luka, and when he's telling a story or making a point he has to finish, i.e. the list of songs. It doesn't enter into his head that this could make people uncomfortable or is inappropriate.  
> I also added some social anxiety for good measure. He doesn't like crowds. He doesn't like to be looked at/stared at. He also really doesn't like to be touched, so a lot of his anxiety at the party is cause by everyone being kind of hand-sy with him or inadvertently touching him, like with Alya's hair.  
> I also feel like when he doesn't know what to say he pulls from what he has heard around him. Chloe told him that all of Adrien's songs are about Marinette. He filed that away. Then when Adrien and songs come up and Marinette is right there in front of him, he blurts out what he knows about it. He has no filter.  
> It's not his fault. He's not doing it to be mean or manipulative. He doesn't have a stake in who Marinette is with. He doesn't particularly like Luka, but he also doesn't particularly like anyone else at the party with the exception of Marinette, who is his oldest friend and they share a common interest of design/art. He likes Adrien because basically he doesn't touch him and doesn't make him feel awkward when he talks about whatever pops in his head. Adrien is kinda obsessed with making sure everyone else is okay/comfortable to the detriment of making sure that he himself is okay. So I feel like Adrien would pick up on Nathaniel's dislike of being touched and be super respectful of that. And of course, Nathaniel is in love with Chloe, but will get more into that with the next part. Oh! Yes, there will be a part 3 and probably 4, and likely 5 to wrap this up. So much for doing a 1 shot! ;)


End file.
